Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Greatest Event in History

In John 3:14, Jesus says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

We know the old testament story that Jesus is referring to. It is found in Numbers 21:4-9

The Israelites had sinned.
Discouraged and angry, they grumbled against God and against Moses. God sent
fiery serpents to punish them for their sin and the bite of the serpent was
fatal. Then, when they cried out to God for deliverance, God commanded Moses to
erect a bronze serpent, and everyone who simply ‘looked’ at the bronze serpent
lived.

It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word
used in verses six and eight in our Numbers passage, and is translated into our English ‘bit’ or ‘bitten’,
is a word that means ‘to strike with a sting’. Then when we go to I Corinthians
15:56, we see that Paul uses that word ‘sting’ in reference to sin, “the
sting of death is sin.” We are familiar with scripture references to Satan
being called a serpent; therefore, we can see that the serpents that bit the
people represent the sin that bites us and causes our death. When the serpent bit the people, they died. When Adam and Eve sinned and brought death upon
the whole human race, we all, in turn, are bitten by sin and are condemned to
die. Only when Jesus was lifted up on
the cross did salvation come - people could look to Him and live!

I used to wonder why Moses was commanded to lift up a bronze serpent -
after all, it was the serpent that was responsible for the death of the people.
Why was it now commanded by God to be the instrument of giving life?

Then, I
understood. It was sin that caused us to
die, and until our sin was lifted up on the cross of Jesus - placed upon Him - we
could not have deliverance.

Though the bronze serpent
had the power to give everyone life, simply lifting it up in the wilderness was
not enough. Every person that was bitten
had to look up at the bronze serpent believing that, as Moses had promised, it
would give them life.

To live spiritually, each one of us must look
up at the cross of Christ and see our own sin hanging there. And we must believe that only Jesus, through
His supreme sacrifice, can save us - by taking our sin upon Himself and suffering our punishment. Through Him, we have life, now and forever! That
is the conclusion we see in John 3:15, which follows the verse we began with,“And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’.

May the Lord bless you, dear reader, this Easter season, and as you think on His sacrifice and His resurrection, may you remember that "the joy set before Him" was YOU!

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Who am I? I am a grandmother. My two granddaughters are the joy of my life. I am in a forced early retirement due to health issues, but life is still good and I enjoy the freedom this new phase in my life has brought. I have always loved books, loved learning and observing and ...Read My Complete Profile